.3 


..v 


U 


MORAL  COURAGE 


A    SERMON     PREACHED     IN     MARQUAND 

CHAPEL    ON     SUNDAY    MORNING 

NOVEMBER  5,   1893 


JAMES  O.  MURRAY,  D.D. 

DEAN   OF   THE  COLLEGE 


\  PRINTED    BY    REQUEST    OF   THE     FACULTY     AND 

SENIOR  CLASS 


C.   S.   ROBINSON  &  CO.,  UNIVERSITY  PRINTERS 
1893 


:3 

MORAL  COURAGE 


A    SERMON     PREACHED     IN     MARQUAND 

CHAPEL    ON     SUNDAY    MORNING 

NOVEMBER  5,   1893 


JAMES  O.  MURRAY,  D.D. 

DEAN   OF   THE  COLLEGE 


I  PRINTED    BY    REQUEST    OF   THE    FACULTY     AND 

SENIOR  CLASS 


C.    S.    ROBINSON   &   CO.,  UNIVERSITY   PRINTERS 


s^-. 


Daniel  vi :  10.  "  Noio  token  Daniel  knew  that  the  vrriting 
was  signed,  he  went  into  his  house;  and,  his  uindorm  being  open 
in  his  chambei'  toward  Jerusalem,  he  kneeled  upon  his  knees  three 
times  a  day,  and  prayed,  and  gave  thanks  before  /</>>■  God,  as  he  did 
aforetime.'^ 

A  virtue  in  action  always  impresses  us  more  deeply 
than  the  same  ^drtue  described  eloquently  or  demanded  in 
a  code  of  morals  imperatively.  "  The  law  of  the  Lord  is 
perfect."  We  give  instant  and  full  assent  to  this  truth. 
We  admire  the  moral  perfection.  But  when  in  the  life  of 
Jesus  Christ  we  see  perfect  righteousness  living  and  mov- 
ing among  men,  speaking  their  language,  mingling  in 
their  society,  toiling,  suffering,  dying,  we  are  moved  as 
no  abstract  conception  of  righteousness  could  possibly 
move  us.  "The  Good  Shepherd  giveth  his  life  for  the 
sheep."  We  catch  these  words  as  they  fall  from  the  lips 
of  the  Great  Master  only  to  feel  their  force  and  beauty. 
But  when  we  read  in  the  story  of  the  gospels  how  the 
Good  Shepherd  gave  his  life  for  the  sheep,  then  for  the  first 
time  we  catch  the  ftilness  of  glorious  meaning  there  may 
be  in  a  self-sacrifice. 

In  the  text  we  have  in  action  a  virtue  which  has 
about  it  something  of  regal  air  and  port.  It  is  moral 
courage,  moral  courage  displayed  under  great  allurements 
to  temporizing  expedients,  or  cowardly  abandonments  of 
convictions.  The  story  may  be  simply  and  briefly  told. 
From  the  position  of  a  Jewish  captive  in  Babylon,  Daniel 
had  risen  to  be  second  in  power  to  the  king.  He  had  be- 
come the  object  of  the  bitterest  enmity.  A  cabal  was 
formed  against  him.     It  was  of  immense  power  so  far  as 


numbers  and  influence  could  go.  But  the  simple  truth 
was  that  so  long  as  Daniel  and  Darius  stood  together  they 
were  more  than  a  match  for  all  the  cabals  that  ever  could 
arise  or  enmity  join  together.  There  was  an  ingenious 
plan  to  divide  the  two,  and  it  succeeded.  Darius  was  per- 
suaded to  make  the  following  decree,  "  that  whosoever 
shall  ask  a  petition  of  any  god  or  man  for  thirty  days, 
save  of  thee,  0  King,  he  shall  be  cast  into  the  den  of 
lions."  The  decree  was  signed.  How  often  in  history 
have  rulers  been  made  miserable  tools  by  their  subor- 
dinate officials  I  The  decree  was  signed  and  proclaimed. 
Of  course  it  came  to  the  ears  of  Daniel.  His  enemies,  be 
sure,  took  good  care  it  should.  He  knew  its  purpose. 
He  foresaw  its  consequences.  What  courses  of  action 
were  open  to  him  ? 

1.  He  might  have  said,  "  Well,  since  it  has  come  to 
this — my  position  at  court  or  my  religion — I  will  not  dis- 
obey the  decree.  I  will  give  in  my  adhesion  to  the  royal 
mandate.  I  will  secure  my  position,  and  letting  religion 
take  care  of  itself,  jump  the  life  to  come."  That  is,  he 
might  have  apostatized.  So  many  men  since  his  day,  have 
apostatized  in  the  face  of  less  barbarous  alternatives. 

2.  He  might  have  said,  "  Since  prayer  is  not  confined 
to  times  of  day  or  forms  of  observance,  since  I  can  pray 
sitting  or  walking,  in  secret  as  well  as  in  public^  I  will 
so  pay  my  devotions  as  to  give  my  adversaries  no  proof 
of  my  disobedience  to  the  mandate  of  Darius."  So  he 
would  have  temporized,  would  have  tried  to  serve  God 
and  mammon. 

o.  Or,  he  might  have  said,  "  The  decree  expires  by 
limitation  in  thirty  days.  It  is  of  far  more  consequence 
for  true  religion  that  I  hold  my  place  at  the  head  of  the 
nation,  than  anything  else  in  my  power.  I  wnll  cease 
praying  for  thirty  days.     Then  my  lips  can  be  opened  in 


redoubled   prayers."      He   might  tliiis  liave  played   the 
Jesuit,  doing  evil  that  good  might  come.     Or, 

4.  lie  might  have  said,  "  I  will  pray  as  I  have  prayed, 
with  windows  open  in  the  chamber  towards  Jerusalem, 
kneeling  on  my  knees  in  sight  of  all  Babylon,  if  all 
Babylon  wishes  to  see  me,  three  times  every  day  will  I 
pray  and  give  thanks  before  my  (iiod,  as  aforetimes."  It 
was  as  you  know,  the  last  course  named,  which  he  adopted, 
and  which  has  lifted  him  to  a  place  among  the  moral 
heroes  of  the  race.  And  if  we  are  to  make  a  study  of 
moral  courage  there  is  nothing  on  inspired  pages  which 
can  present  it  in  clearer  or  more  fascinating  light.  It  is 
not  a  dreamy  abstraction.  It  is  virtue  in  action,  and  in 
such  action  that  we  can  see  what  the  whole  thing  means. 
This  study  of  moral  courage  I  propose  to  make  with  you 
this  morning.  What  then  is  this  virtue  ?  In  what  is  it 
rooted  ?  Some  analysis  is  needed  alike  for  clearness  and 
force  of  moral  impression. 

ObNiously  then  it  must  ha\e  for  its  principal  element 
faith  in  righteousness.  That  this  is  no  empty  truism  is 
evident  from  the  fact  that  many  men  believe  in  righteous- 
ness only  so  far  as  it  is  respectable  or  useful.  How  else 
can  you  account  for  so  starveling  and  false  a  proverb  as  that 
honesty  is  the  best  policy.  Honesty  is  often  the  worst 
policy  so  far  as  popularity  or  even  a  temporary  or  worldly 
success  may  go.  All  moral  courage  worthy  the  name  is 
formed  in  the  belief  that  righteousness  has  some  fixed 
and  absolute  standard.  That  standard  is  God's  revealed 
will.  The  moment  it  assumes  to  human  view  any  other 
shape,  it  no  longer  seems  a  thing  Avorth  contending  for. 
It  will  not  have  content  enough  to  appeal  to  this  high 
quality  of  manhood,  courage.  On  the  vieAV  that  righteous- 
ness is  no  mere  thing  of  to-day  or  yesterday,  no  mere 
accretion    of   human    experience    touching    elements    of 


life,  but  something  embodied  in  an  all  holy  and  infinite 
personal  will  and  eternally  linked  with  an  infinite  goodness, 
it  becomes  to  human  view,  what  must  appeal  to  every- 
thing in  man  noblest  and  strongest,  for  its  assertion  and 
vindication.  Moral  courage  then  finds  an  object  grander 
than  all  else  besitles  in  human  life.  The  range  is  so  wide, 
the  interests  so  deep.  Certain  it  is  that  all  the  moral 
heroes  of  the  world  have  had  this  simple  and  sublime 
faith  in  righteousness.  They  may  not  always  have  accepted 
our  evangelical  system  as  the  very  heart  and  core  of  Chris- 
tianity. They  may  hav^e  been  adherents  of  Deistical 
beliefs.  But  they  believed  in  righteousness  as  something 
fixed  and  absolute.  They  believed  in  a  plan  of  God,  that 
human  life  at  its  deepest,  at  its  central  point,  is  a  moral 
system,  over  which  this  righteous  law  broods,  as  the  blue 
heaven  broods  over  the  solid  earth. 

jSTay,  the  faith  in  righteousness  which  gives  a  broad 
and  solid  footing  for  moral  courage  must  hold  it  to  be  the 
SKprcmc  element  in  life.  Logically  this  follows  of  course 
from  the  former  view.  But  it  must  take  possession  of  the 
man's  heart  as  well  as  his  understanding  if  he  is  to  be 
morally  brave  in  the  surely  coming  conflicts  of  life.  For 
you  can  find  men  bold  enough  in  resisting  certain  forms 
of  evil.  Plenty. of  gamblers  in  the  stock-market  will  be 
bold  in  resisting  communism.  Plenty  of  young  men  who 
give  way  to  sinful  passions  would  join  a  crusade  against 
cruelty,  liighteousness  in  such  cases  is  not  the  supreme 
thing  in  life.     It  is  fragmentary,  partial.     It  does  not 

"  See  life  steadily  and  see  it  whole." 

And  their  moral  courage  is  therefore  a  fraction.  Change 
circumstances  and  they  would  not  be  bold  in  attacking 
evils    which  they   nov^   attack,  and    attack    not  because 


righteousness,  the  whole  rounded  element  of  life,  is 
supreme,  but  because  sometimes  they  may 

"  Compound  for  sins  they  are  inclined  to  " 

by  an  assault  upon  others  which  have  no  fascination. 
They  may  even  plume  themselves  upon  this  type  of  moral 
courage.  They  certainly  throw  a  sop  to  conscience.  But 
the  faith  in  righteousness  which  makes  men  morally-  cour- 
ageous, is  a  faith  in  it,  as  the  supreme  quality  in  life, 
before  which  ease,  success,  pleasure,  all  pale.  They  must 
believe  in  that  righteousness  which  does  not  pay,  which 
necessitating  struggle,  self-denial,  pain  and  loss,  is  yet  the 
supreme  thing  in  life. 

Moral  courage  reaches,  however,  a  fuller  proportion 
and  a  sturdier  grasp  when  it  is  planted  also  on  faith 
in  a  God  of  righteousness :  in  a  God  who  by  \artue 
of  his  own  infinite  righteousness  is  no  unconcerned 
spectator  in  the  long  conflict  between  good  and  evil  on 
the  earth  :  in  a  God  who  is  in  the  conflict  as  the  ally  of  all 
good  men.  Kfor  no  other  reason,  for  this,  that  men  are 
often  left  by  their  fellows  to  fight  the  battles  for  goodness, 
alone.  They  are  in  the  minority  and  it  is  a  strong  and 
overbearing  host  arrayed  against  them.  Besides,  many  a 
conflict  putting  moral  courage  to  severest  tests  must  be 
fought  in  the  man's  own  soul.  It  is  a  self-conquest.  It  is 
a  secret  struggle.  There  are  no  human  spectators  of  the 
fight.  AVho  does  not  know  of  such  secret  battles  ?  Who 
has  not  known  how  his  courage  has  been  put  to  the  test  by 
the  desertion  of  others  on  whom  he  had  relied — or  by  the 
odds  against  him,  which  he  knew  his  course  would  rouse  ? 
Nor  is  it  any  mark  of  weakness  that  at  such  times  heart 
fails  a  man.  "  You  look  pale,"  said  a  subaltern  to  his 
superior  ofi&cer  on  the  eve  of  battle.  "  You  would  not  be 
here  to  look  pale,"  was  the  reply,  "  had  you  known  as  I 


know  what  battle  is."  'No,  in  such  hours  man  needs  the 
support  of  the  Higher  Arm.  He  is  finite  and  he  is 
human,  no  demi-god,  no  suj^erhuman  creature.  It  is  no 
mark  of  weakness  that  he  turns  pale  in  the  \dew  of  a 
moral  struggle.  He  needs  to  feel  that  God  is  with  him. 
Kaulbach  in  one  of  his  Berlin  frescoes  has  painted  a  battle 
of  the  Huns  in  which  above  the  earthly  combatants,  the 
spirits  of  the  air  are  fighting  too.  The  iresco  is  a 
parable.  No  man  fights  his  bravest  in  these  struggles 
between  right  and  wrong,  till  he  feels  that  God  is  with 
him  in  the  fight.  Some  men  mistake  moral  bravado  for- 
moral  courage.  The  former  affect  to  despise  the  odds, 
to  depreciate  the  bitter  cost,  to  make  light  of  the  human 
weakness.  Moral  courage  never  does.  It  owns  to  the 
full  the  weakness  of  the  arm'  of  flesh.  It  shrinks  from 
what  such  struggles  involve.  But  it  remembers  God — as 
the  Helper,  sings  with  Martin  Luther  the  '  Ein  teste 
Burg,'  believes  in  the  God  of  righteousness  and  then 
takes  its  stand  for  truth  and  duty. 

Moral  courage  will  not  gather  into  itself  all  elements 
of  strength,  until  it  is  rooted  in  a  faith  in  Jesus  Christ 
as  the  Founder  of  a  Kingdom  of  righteousness  on  earth. 
Moral  courage  in  its  highest  form  is  therefore  Chris- 
tian courage.  It  is  the  boldness  of  Daniel  when  in 
sight  of  all  Babylon  and  in  full  knowledge  of  the  change- 
less nature  of  the  arbitrary  and  cruel  decree  of  Darius, 
he  opened  his  windows  toward  Jerusalem,  kneeled  down 
and  prayed  the  forbidden  prayer.  It  is  the  courage 
of  Joseph  of  Arimathea  who  wrote  to  Pilate  and 
craved  boldly  the  l)ody  of  Jesus,  when  such  a  request 
marked  him  as  the  friend  of  the  N"azarene.  It  is  the 
unfaltering,  uncompromising  fidelity  of  the  apostles  like 
Peter  and  Paul  who  spoke  boldly  in  the  name  of  the  Lord 
Jesus.     The  distinctive  element  in  all  these  acts  of  chris- 


tian  boldness,  is  the  faitli  tliat  Christ  has  set  up  a  kino:(loin 
on  earth,  for  which  men  arc  bound  to  contend.  Christ 
has  been  here  in  [terson.  lie  entered  the  lists.  lie  died 
on  the  cross.  He  rose  again  to  be  by  virtue  of  his 
death,  the  Divine  Head  of  the  kingdom.  Every  moral 
principle,  every  holy  doctrine  is  in  that  kingdom.  You 
cannot  find  anything  on  earth  worth  contending  for  mor- 
ally wliich  is  not  in  that  kingdom.  And  courage  rises  to 
its  full  }»roportion  only  when  it  draws  inspiration  from 
Christ.  To  l)e  on  His  side  is  the  position  which,  as  it  surely 
precipitates  conflict,  also  and  as  surely  puts  a  man  where 
he  may  feel  Strongest.  It  has  been  written  for  us  in  the 
l)lood  of  the  martyrs.  You  can  read  the  truth  in  the 
light  of  flames  which  curled  above  the  heads  of  such  men 
as  Latimer  and  Ridley.  The  only  amazing  thing  is  that 
christian  men  are  not  a  thousand  fold  bolder  than  they 
are.  Faith  in  the  kingdom  of  Christ  and  in  Christ  as  a 
King,  is  the  strongest  foundation  for  courage,  because  it 
gives  us  the  assurance  through  the  holy  mystery  of  the  In- 
carnation, that  Christ  Jesus  is  with  men,  with  every  man 
in  every  huml)lest  struggle  for  the  right,  he  is  called  to 
ena'au'e  in.    So  sang  Frederic  Faber  in  one  of  his  hvmns. 


O  blest  is  he  to  whom  is  gif  en 

The  instinct  that  can  tell 
That  God  is  on  the  field,  when  He 

Is  most  invisible  ! 

O  learn  to  scorn  the  praise  of  men, 

O  learn  to  lose  with  God  ; 
For  Jesus  won  the  world  through  shame 

And  beckons  thee  his  road. 


Muse  on  his  patience,  downcast  soul, 
Muse  and  take  better  heart  ; 

Back  with  thine  angel  to  the  field, 
Good  luck  shall  crown  thy  part. 


10 

For  right  is  right,  since  God  is  God, 

And  right  the  day  must  win  ; 
To  doubt  would  be  disloyalty, 

To  falter  would  be  sin. 

The  danger  in  presenting  any  such  subject  as  this  is, 
that  the  whole  force  of  moral  impression  may  he  lost  in 
a  mass  of  general  statements  which  everyl)ody  assents  to 
and  nobody  brings  home  to  his  own  business  and  bosom. 
To  avoid  this  peril,  let  us  next  consider  tlte  occasions  on 
which  such  a  virtue  as  moral  courage  should  assert  itself. 
These,  of  course,  always  exist  in  the  larger  sphere  of  human 
life,  where  great  issues  are  nuide  up  and  vast  interests  con- 
(•entrate  themsek'es.  Take  for  example  public  life  as  it 
goes  on  in  America  to-day.  So  absolute  is  the  power  of 
party  control,  so  wholly  subservient  to  party  interests  are. 
public  men,  that  only  when  an  overwhelming  ]3ublic  sen- 
timent is  generated  in  favor  of  reforming  abuses,  do  our 
public  men  come  forward  to  the  work.  Of  course  there 
are  exceptions.  But  they  only  prove  the  rule.  Our  public 
men  too  often  seem  bold  only  when  moral  courage  in  the 
leaders  has  been  reinforced  by  the  force  of  enlightened 
sentiment  in  the  people.  The  last  virtue  a  mere  politician 
wishes  anything  to  do  with  is  moral  courage.  lie  has  no 
use  for  it.  It  is  in  his  way.  It  might  put  him  at  odds  with 
his  party.  It  might  insist  on  carrying  out  convictions. 
It  might  not  run  with  the  machine.  And  there  is  no 
sphere  where  this  virtue  is  more  loudly  demanded  than  in 
the  sphere  of  public  life.  The  duty  resting  on  all  educa- 
ted men  at  this  hour  is  to  make  our  statesmen  feel  that  this 
is  expected  of  them  by  the  thinking  classes.  Every  year 
the  force  of  this  educated  sentiment  is  growing.  Politi- 
cians may  slur  it  now.  But  it  is  as  sure  at  last  to  make 
itself,  at  least  a  balance  of  power  in  this  country,  as  water 
is  to  find  its  level. 


11 

The  same  thini>:  is  true  for  many  other  forms  of  asso- 
ciated Ufe.  Take  the  church  of  Christ.  How  often  it 
languishes  for  want  of  a  few  men  of  moral  courage. 
Take  much  of  what  passes  for  business  sanctioned  by  re- 
spectable names.  The  deeds  that  are  done  in  the  name 
of  business  transactions  are  such  for  magnitude  that  they 
seem  to  browbeat  the  christian  world  into  silence.  How 
long  shall  they  go  unchallenged,  unrebuked  !  What  is 
church  discipline  come  to,  what  is  it  as  any  moral  force  I 
It  tithes  mint,  anise  and  cummin.  But  the  shameful  tact 
exists — there  is  no  covering  it  up — that  church  discipline 
is  unknown  in  as  large  field  of  business  operations, 
which  are  at  Avar  with  the  first  principles  of  honesty  and 
which  defy  and  laugh  to  scorn  all  the  sentiments  of  gen- 
erosity, fame  and  honor.     These  are  not  "  business." 

Let  us  not  however  wander  too  far  from  ourselves, 
and  gain  credit  by  cheap  denunciation  of  other's  failings, 
when  we  come  nearer  home  only  to  find  the  demand  for 
moral  courage  constant  and  wide.  Take  the  associated 
life  in  our  colleges.  What  a  sphere  for  moral  courage  is 
aftbrded  in  student  life  I  There  come  to  young  men 
direct  solicitations  to  evil,  from  those  already  corrupt. 
Let  me  speak  plainly.  I  mean  in  every  such  associated 
student  life  as  college  creates,  there  will  be  found  men 
already  evil  at  heart,  or  men  who  with  other  generous 
and  admirable  qualities,  are  men  of  easy  going  disposition, 
who  are  the  victims  by  turns  and  then  the  tempters. 
College  life  has  its  vices,  extravagance,  drinking,  gambling, 
lust,  I  rejoice  to  believe  that  as  a  body  of  young  men  it  is 
only  a  class,  I  would  fain  believe  a  very  small  class,  to  which 
such  a  charge  comes  home.  But  you  know  when  and  where 
it  strikes,  and  I  may  safely  leave  the  personal  applica- 
tion to  your  own  eonsciences  and  college  sentiment.  Here 
then  is  the  occasion  for  moral  courage  in  a  clear,  prompt, 


12 

sturdy  refusal  to  every  such  solicitation  to  evil.  I  may  not 
(louhi  that  there  has  heen  an  hour  in  the  history  of  some 
before  me  since  their  college  life  here  began,  when  sucli 
a  refusal,  springing  from  a  true  moral  courage,  would  have 
changed  the  whole  subsequent  career,  and  have  saved 
them  from  a  bitter  heritage  of  self-contempt.  It  may  be 
only  refusal  to  be  a  participant  of  the  sin.  It  may  not 
involve  relmke  for  the  tempter,  richly  as  such  rebuke  is 
deserved.  It  may  be  only  the  calm  delil)erate  "  ]^o  " 
which  rises  like  a  Wall  against  persuasion.  But  he  would 
be  a  very  harsh  judge  and  cold  hearted  preacher  who 
would  say,  it  is  easy  for  young  men  to  say  "  no  "  to  these 
direct  solicitations  to  evil  dissipations.  I  say  it  does  take 
moral  courage,  sometimes  moral  courage  of  very  positive 
type.  And  yet  it  should  l)e  remembered  by  every  young- 
man  when  he  is  under  enticement  to  evil  courses,  that 
such  enticement  always  puts  on  a  l:)ol(l  front,  Ijut  may  be 
after  all  shamelaced  and  skulking  enough  within.  The 
dashing  air  of  carrying  all  before  it,  as  if  all  else  was  a  tame 
and  sheepish  atfair,  is  only  the  swagger  ot  a  moral  l)ully. 
It  will  be  cowed  always  by  a  quiet,  determined  refusal  to 
enter  into  evil  ways.  The  thing  to  l)e  remem1)ercd  by 
you  is  that  one  grain  of  true  nioral  courage  will  easily 
outface  every  such  temptation  and  tempter.  Some- 
times it  may  be  the  province  and  the  duty  of  moral  cour- 
age to  go  farther  and  give  stinging  rebuke  to  the  tempter 
Were  there  more  of  this  done  it  vvould  lift  our  col- 
lege morality  to  still  higher  planes  of  purity  and 
strength.  But  at  all  events  let  there  be  a  moral  courage 
in  our  college  life,  strong  enough,  active  enough,  to  let 
the  evil  minded  men  know  that  the  business  of  seducing 
others  to  their  own  vile  level  is  dastardly,  and  is  to  be  ban- 
ished, that  the  college  is  no  hunting  ground  where  the 
panders  to  the  devil  may  do  his  work  of  destroying  soul 
and  body  in  hell. 


13 

A  similar  call  for  moral  courage  is  made  upon  the 
professedly  christian  men  here.  First  of  all,  to  be  simply 
and  earnestly  true  to  these  christian  professions.  I  know 
it  to  have  been  the  occasion  of  bitter  regret  to  some 
very  true-hearted  men  who  in  years  past  have  been  with 
us,  that  during  their  college  course  christian  life  was 
with  them  in  a  condition  of  almost  total  collapse.  They 
never  identified  themselves  actively  with  the  working 
christian  element  in  the  college.  IsTay,  they  were  influ- 
ential in  a  direction  which  if  not  the  antagonist,  was  the 
suffocation  of  earnest  christian  li\dng.  And  at  last  came 
the  sense  of  recreancy  to  their  high  vocation  when  it  was 
well  nigh  too  late  to  redeem  it.  It  may  be  that  moral 
courage  will  be  demanded  of  men  to  play  a  high  christian 
part  here.  Cast  off  from  such  moral  supports  as  are 
found  in  the  churches  you  have  left,  where  watchful  eyes 
were  upon  you,  and  there  was  an  earnest  christian  sen- 
timent you  deeply  honored,  it  may  be  harder  to  be  the 
earnest,  consistent  christian  man.  If  so,  then  by  so  much 
the  harder,  by  so  much  the  more  imperative  the  duty  to 
summon  courage  equal  to  the  hour.  In  many  cases  the 
battle  is  lost  by  want  of  boldness  at  the  outset.  To  take 
such  a  step  in  the  outset  of  a  college  career  is  almost 
decisive  in  the  case.  It  is  the  first  step  which  costs. 
But  at  whatever  outlay  of  courage  the  man  is  bound  to 
add  his  part  to  the  positive  christian  influence  in  the  col- 
lege. The  negative  attitude  counts  only  in  the  other 
direction.  There  is  a  denial  of  Christ  before  men,  which 
finds  its  early  and  sad  representative  in  Peter's  denial  in 
the  high  priest's  palace. 

And  when  professedly  christian  men  play  into  the 
hands  of  a  loose,  demoralizing  college  sentiment,  and  for 
popularity  cater  to  what  they  know  is  unworthy  of  the 
true  christian  manhood,  the  result  is  deplorable  everyway. 


14 

Religion  must  concern  itself  with  morals  :  college  religion 
must  concern  itself  with  college  morals.  ISTo  fervor  in 
prayer  meetings,  no  amount  of  christian  talk  can  possi- 
bly make  good' such  a  deficiency  in  christian  influence, 
both  as  to  quality  and  degree.  It  will  of  course  resolve 
itself  into  a  question  of  courage.  "  Have  I  the  moral 
nerve  to  stand  for  what  is  true  and  honorable,  and  just, 
and  pure,  and  never  strike  my  flag  to  what  is  mean  and 
false  and  low  ?  "  Your  Christianity  is  just  as  much  con- 
cerned with  these  questions,  as  with  doctrines  of  the  faith, 
or  going  to  communion  tables.  IS'ay,  your  place  at  the 
table  of  the  Lord  may  be  determined  as  worthy  or  un- 
worthy by  the  very  answer  you  may  give  to  just  such  home 
questions  as  these.  They  may  test  your  moral  courage 
just  as  soreh'  as  the  decree  of  Darius  tried  the  soul  of 
Daniel. 

There  is  yet  another  responsibility  of  student  life  in 
such  institutions  as  this,  for  the  discharge  of  which  moral 
courage  may  be  demanded.  It  is  responsibility  for  the 
creation  and  maintenance  of  a  high  college  sentiment 
which  shall  always  assert  itself  in  favor  of  what  is  right 
and  true,  and  always  frown  on  what  is  reckless  and  dis- 
orderly and  ruinous  to  the  best  interests  of  the  college. 
This  responsibility  is  not  a  divided  one.  It  belongs  to 
you.  I  believe  it  can  be  commended  to  your  conscience 
by  high  considerations  to  which  I  beg  your  attention. 
Every  student  or  graduate  of  a  college  is  a  beneficiary. 
He  receives  daily  a  bounty  from  the  founders,  who  toiled 
to  make  the  fortunes  out  of  which  those  buildings  are 
reared,  these  professorships  established,  these  chapels  built. 
It  is  perhaps  among  the  proudest  records  of  the  christian 
church,  that  the  great  institutions  of  learning  in  the  old 
world  and  new  are  the  gifts  of  devout  men  who  believed 
that  learning  was  not  only  the  liand-maid  but  the  true 


15 

yoke-fellow  of  religion  in  the  great  work  of  regenerating 
human  society.  But  h^re  stands  the  fact,  that  only  by  the 
muniticent  liberality  of  such  men,  are  you  here  to-day. 
Do  not  even  for  a  moment  imagine  that  your  tuition  fees 
represent  anything  like  an  adequate  return,  and  dissolve  all 
obligation  on  your  part  as  beneficiaries.  The  per  cent,  of 
cost  which  fees  represent  is  infinitesimal.  When  paid,  they 
still  leave  every  man  who  has  received  an  education  in 
college  under  an  obligation  which  is  too  little,  far  too  little, 
remembered,  and  which  might  be  insisted  on  for  other 
reasons  than  those  for  which  I  now  urge  its  consideration. 
It  forfeits  no  man's  self-respect  to  be  such  a  beneficiary. 
It  detracts  nothing  from  his  independence  and  manliness 
that  he  is  willing  to  accept  it.  But  it  does  place  him 
under  some  obligations  to  the  founders  whose  benefactions 
he  appropriates.  It  does  make  it  his  duty  as  a  matter  of 
common  gratitude  to  see  that  such  a  public  sentiment 
exists,  as  will  not  pervert  and  hinder,  but  promote  and 
enlarge  the  sphere  of  the  beneficent  endowments.  I  recall 
to-day  with  the  profoundest  emotion  of  respect  him — our 
chief  founder — whose  [)ortrait  looks  down  on  us  from 
y(^nder  reading  room.  That  life  of  hard  and  unsparing 
toil  in  a  foreign  land  where  the  foundations  of  his  fortune 
were  laid,  that  stainless  life  of  business  integrity,  that 
high  appreciation  of  intelligent  equipment  for  life's  duties, 
that  strenuous  abhorrence  of  e^'erything  which  was  ti-ivo- 
lous  or  base,  or  disorderly,  that  invincible  repugnance  to 
all  sham,  that  serene "lo\-e  of  truth  and  duty  which  made 
him  conspicuous  in  every  community  where  he  was  known, 
these  qualities  of  this  Founder,  John  C.  Green,  on  whose 
bounty  we  daily  live,  make  it  incund^ent  on  every  one 
of  us  to  carry  out  his  aims  in  those  benefactions,  that 
the  college  should  be  the  nursery  not  only  of  hi^h  learn- 
inii",  but  of  hiiili  manliness  of  unstained  honor  abroad  and 


16 

at  home.  And  this  can  be  done  only  in  one  way,  by  the 
raising  up  of  a  public  sentiment  in  college,  or  if  it  exists, 
maintaining  and  re-enforcing  it,  which  shall  be  the  strong- 
est bulwark  of  order,  dignity,  gentlemanliness,  purity, 
truth,  all  which  goes  to  make  up  the  best  possible  college 
morals.     If  any  traditions  clash  idfh  this,  let  them  perish. 

But  clearly  enough  before  such  a  sentiment  can  be 
formed,  what  is  dormant  now  in  some  minds  must  assert 
itself,  what  is  wrong  must  be  warred  against.  The  good 
and  true  sentiment  must  assert  itself  more  strenuously  and 
persistently.  I  believe  it  is  cowed  often.  I  believe  that 
the  worse  sentiment  has  been  allowed  sometimes  to  get 
the  better  of  the  true,  through  want  of  l)oldness.  Here 
is  the  occasion  for  moral  courage.  And  what  nobkr  form 
of  displaying  it  than  in  fulfilling  such  obligations  to  such 
founders. 

A  public  sentiment  in  college  vigorously  asserting 
itself  in  fiivor  of  the  purity  and  order  of  the  college, 
frowning  sternly  upon  all  such  gross  violations  of  purity 
and  order  as  seriously  injure  the  college,  is  just  as  much 
demanded,  that  its  legitimate  work  may  prosperously  go  on. 
I  am  discussing  the  question  this  morning  in  its  moral  bear- 
ings. Much  might  be  said  as  to  the  worth  of  a  high  and 
pure  morale  in  our  college  life,  for  its  fair  fame,  for  advanc- 
ing its  interests  among  its  competitors  for  public  favor.  I 
turn  from  all  this  to  point  out  the  need  of  such  a  public  sen- 
timent for  the  successful  work  of  the  institution.  It  is  the 
right  of  every  man  coming  to  this  college  to  expect,  that 
around  him  should  be  found  an  atmosphere  of  high  intel- 
lectual activity,  of  honoral)le  and  true  gentlemanliness,  of 
kind  and  cordial  social  fellowship,  of  earnest  moral  tone, 
of  liberal  and  warm  christian  feeling,  in  which  his  own 
development  may  go  forward,  he  in  tprn   contributing 


17 

cacoording  to  the  divine  command  and  pattern,  "  Freely 
ye  have  received,  freely  give."  Lower  the  tone  in  this 
respect,  make  college  life  the  arena  for  disorder,  of  out- 
break, or  an  indolent  good  time,  in  which  the  intellectual 
is  subordinated  to  things  innocent  in  their  place,  but 
holding  at  best,  in  a  truly  ordered  college  life,  only  an 
incidental  position,  and  that  will  be  wanting  which  men 
who  come  here  have  a  right  to  expect  they  v^dll  find,  and 
for  which  the  public  holds  the  college  responsible.  We 
cannot  grow  the  best  men  in  such  an  atmosphere.  Insen- 
sibly, if  not  sensibly,  all  will  feel  the  enervating,  if  not  the 
distracting  influences  of  the  time  and  place.  What  men 
need  here  is  the  stimulus  gained  from  a  society  of  college 
men  which  braces  up  earnest  purpose,  and  sets  work,  hard 
work,  at  a  premium.  And  so  far  as  college  life  minis- 
ters to  anything  else,  to  low  conceptions  of  life  as  a  field 
for  earnest  endeavor,  it  is  a  moral  failure.  There  is  no 
power  in  or  out  of  nature  to  break  the  connection  be- 
tween the  indolent,  dillettante  use,  the  low,  debasing  abuse 
of  opportunities,  and  moral  failures.  Unless  you  for 
yourselves  create  first  the  atmosphere  of  earnest,  resolute 
purpose,  strong  to  every  high  and  worthy  inspiration, 
■you  cannot  fitly  equip  yourselves  for  the  work  of  life. 
The  loss  of  this  is  irreparable,  for  if  a  man  has,  in  after  life, 
simply  to  recover  from  the  effects  of  his  college  course,  his 
con\alescence  will  be  a  costly  matter  to  him  and  to  his 
friends.  And  I  may  say  once  more,  here  comes  in  this 
question  of  moral  courage.  Will  the  earnest,  the  pure, 
the  ennobling  sentiment  rule,  or  will  it  be  cowed  and  lie 
prostrate  before  the  low  and  unworthy  ?  That  is  the  ques- 
tion. I  can  not  for  one  moment  doubt  that  if  the  senti- 
ment favoring  all  that  is  high  in  moral  tone,  in  your  dormi- 
tories, at  worship  in  this  chapel,  in  your  recitation  rooms, 
ill  all  your  representations  of  the  college  elsewhere,  would 


18 

only  assert  itself,  the  air  about  us  ^\'ould  be  cleared  of 
intellectual  and  moral  miasmas.  And  whether  it  shall 
or  not,  is  the  question  of  moral  courage.  Will  you 
assist  this  public  sentiment,  so  that  in  deed  and  truth  we 
may  be  able  to  say  to  the  public  and  to  the  world,  there 
is  at  least  to  be  found  in  Princeton  College  a  high  tone 
as  to  every  attribute  of  true  college  life  ?  Earnest  pur- 
pose, high  and  strong  intellectual  life,  orderly,  quiet  and 
gentlemanly  conduct,  no  more  puerile  and  servile  obe- 
dience to  foolish  traditions,  but  fi-eed  from  all  that,  a 
genial,  cordial,  large-hearted  fellowship  of  scholars  united 
in  this  place  of  training  for  life-work.  And  this  is  at 
your  doors  laid  as  a  question  of  moral  courage. 

I  have  spoken  of  the  nature  and  occasions  for  this 
virtue.  The  necessity  for  it  should  point  a  few  concluding 
thoughts.  From  what  does  it  spring  ?  Is  it  intermittent 
or  constant  ?  absolute  or  relative  ? 

Looked  at  in  its  deepest  aspect,  all  human  life  is  a 
battlefield  on  which  the  conflict  between  good  and  e^il  is 
ever  waging.  Every  human  soul,  every  community,  every 
form  of  organized  society,  the  whole  moral  system — here 
is  its  arena.  There  is  no  escape  from  it.  It  is  the  inevi- 
table condition  of  our  existence,  and  must  be. accepted  by 
us.  You  can  flee  from  it  into  no  monasteries,  you  can 
shun  it  in  no  solitary  hermitages.  It  is  within  you  as  the 
kingdom  of  God  is  within  every  christian  man,  to  become 
the  ruler  there.  As  the  arena  for  struggle  is  universal, 
so  the  conflict  is  incessant.  You  read  it  in  every  page  of 
history.  You  hear  its  noise  and  outcries  above  even  the 
din  of  battlefields.  You  find  it  sounding  the  deepest  note 
in  literature,  as  great  tragedy  comes  sweeping  by  us  in  the 
titanic  woes  of  Lear  and  the  titanic  struggles  of  Mac- 
beth.    ]^ay,  you  know  that  it  makes  up  the  saddest  and 


19 

most  woful  part  of  that  vast  unwritten  history  which  only 
the  day  of  judgment  shall  unroll  before  us. 

The  necessity  lor  moral  courage,  then,  absolute  and 
unintermitting,  springs  fi-om  this  factor  of  our  moral  con- 
dition. No  good  part  in  life  can  be  phiyed  without  it. 
Every  profession  calls  for  it.  The  life  you  lead  here,  with 
its  occasions  for  this  virtue,  is  but  a  type  of  what  is  to 
come,  only  in  greater  degree  and  on  a  larger  scale.  The 
old  martyrdom  has  gone,  its  mission  nol)ly  fulfilled.  But 
there  are  still,  as  the  poets  sing,  martyrs  Ijy  the  pang 
without  the  palm. 

And  to  this  complexion  does  it  come  at  last — that 
unless  you  are  to  smother  convictions  basely — unless  you 
are  to  strike  your  flags  to  low  standards  of  morals — in 
politics,  in  business^  as  well  as  in  student  life,  unless  you 
are  to  live  on  a  low  temporizing  plane  in  christian  and 
social  life,  you  must  fight  this  good  fight  of  faith.  I 
have  spoken  plainly  this  morning,  because  plain  words  are 
best,  and  yet  more,  because  it  seems  to  me  no  idle  dream 
of  an  enthusiast  or  visionary  that  our  student  life  the 
world  over,  may  and  should  be  lifted  to  higher  regions  and 
every  tradition  brought  under  foot,  which  is  in  the  w^ay 
of  this  blessed  consummation ;  nay  because  I  have  fiuth 
enough  in  the  young  men  before  me  to  believe  that  they 
will  respond  to  the  ctesire,  the  hope,  the  .confidence  that 
this  institution  shall  be  a  leader  in  this  advance.  And  so 
I  end  my  message  this  morning  by  the  words  of  a  scholar, 
a  man  of  most  glorious  deeds,  because  a  man  of  holiest 
and  loftiest  christian  courage..  "  Finally,  brethren,  whatso- 
ever things  are  true,  whatsoever  things  are  honorable, 
whatsoever  things  are  just,  whatsoever  things  are  pure, 
whatsoever  things  are  lovely,  whatsoever'  things  are  of 
good  report;  if  there  be  any  virtue  and  if  there  be  any 
praise,  think  on  these  things." 


